. >> reporter: today, steve hemminger wasn't dwelling on the past. it was a time to celebrate the present. there were many, many days when i was never sure we'd get this far. >> today marked a major milestone for the new bridge. for the first time, the self-anchored single-suspension span was holding its own. >> this was the last major milestone we had to meet, which was transferring the load of this immense bridge on to the cable system. >> reporter: after months of work, crews have finished shifting the load of the 32-ton deck on a 200 suspender cables. >> we've taken the entire weight of the self-anchored suspension bridge and placed it on the cable system that will hold it in place for 150 years. >> reporter: workers used jacks to increase tension on the cables, transferring the weight to the bridge's single cable and tower. during the transfer, the deck actually shifted 30 feet. at the end, it was a giant sigh of relief. >> we were never afraid we were going to drop the bridge into the bay, but it could have taken us a lot longer. >> reporter: t